Hi everybody, My names Reid Im 14 years old and I've got 2 gokart projects. Thinking that some of you probably had a gokart as a kid I thought this was good to share. I bought the first one (Sodikart) in April and the second one (Birel) in July. Both of them have been fun projects to date and over that time i've accumulated some build progress photos, so here they are...
When I bought the Sodikart in April this is how it looked
This is how the Sodikart looked in October before the full rebuild that is in progress
The Birel looked like this when I brought it home
And after a quick wash it looked like this
Both have a Honda Gx160 engine
As of right now this is what the sodikart looks like, I wanted this one to look its best and the previous owners "new paint job" was not gonna cut it (they just went at it with a spraycan)
And as of right now the Birel is getting its bumper bar repaired so I can hopefully sell it as there is no room left in my garage for things
Ill post more in depth on things later, hope you like this project!
I'm from Oakville so the nearest track I could actually race it at is in Hamilton, Cameron Motorsports Park. But I haven't gone to a track with them yet.
One of the things I knocked off the list today was porting the header. As you can see from the first picture below, the shape of the hole is restricting exhaust gasses. This is due to the circular shape of the header meeting to the "D" shape on the head. The blackened char residue is the restricted area.
It was my first time doing this and I think it turned out alright. Certainly an improvement from what it was.
-- Edited by Reid Fenwick on Saturday 19th of December 2015 10:05:31 PM
My kids raced karts for years all around Ontario. I wouldn't trade those days for anything, we had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people.
That header was not causing any restriction - believe me!
Driving those karts around a parking lot will get boring real quick. If you want to REALLY enjoy them, consider joining a club and racing. You'll have to have the motors and karts conform to some rules though and expect to get your ass kicked for at least the first season!
Look up WRKC on the net (Waterloo Regional Kart Club). They race every Saturday at a track they've built at Flamboro Raceway. They're the only club still running Hondas, all the others are running the crappy Briggs because they've been paid off!! My advice ... avoid Cameron like the plague - the guy is an ass and so is his whole operation.
At the Flamboro track I think you can go out on Fridays and run all day for $50.. Not cheap but nothing with wheels is cheap!!
Thank you Stan! I have been thinking about joining a club as not only is driving around the neighborhood boring but I'm sure the neighborhood is not too thrilled about me driving around, and some work will for sure be needed to conform to some rules. Ill use your advice when when I plan on joining this summer. Thanks again for the tips.
At 14 you're probably going to be in a class requiring the 6.5 Honda. I think what you have are the 5.5's. If they're decent and desireable motors then you can sell them for a decent buck BUT do not do any mods to them. For example if you have a desireble head but you were to glass bead it, its illegal to race so is worthless.
Desirable motors are determined by the shape the bore is in and how many times its been bored - twice is the max as you can't get rings that will give a good seal on the third overbore (must be stock Honda). Likewise Honda made a ton of different heads for that motor and some are like gold and others you can't give away.
On the topic of not doing any mods... would having replaced all the gaskets be a "mod"? (I don't think so). As I just rebuilt the engine and put in fresh ones, but otherwise it is all stock I think. It is a trudel racing engine so it may have some aftermarket parts internally.